O2 announce 4G launch date

O2 has announced that they'll be launching their 4G mobile network on 29 August. With that being the gist of the article, you'll probably stop reading this now.

For those still with us, the service will initially be available in London, Leeds and Bradford, before a wider rollout by the end of 2013.

O2 say that the basic 4G tariff will cost £26 a month, which is more expensive that EE's cheapest rate of £21 a month.

Telefonica UK's (they own O2) chief executive, Ronan Dunne, said that his firm want to match EE's launch speeds, but acknowledged that his network would be slower. He also added that O2's 4G network would not be compatible with Apple's iPhone 5.

Dunne added that consumers who bought a tariff directly from O2 would get a year's "free music content" and that there would be further announcements to come about gaming.

@Lance
Slower Speeds - The same speed as EE launched with, just EE have now moved on to their faster-still phase (EE won a chunk of both spectrum bands in the Ofcom 4G lottery, O2 only won the slower of the two).
Cost More - All they've announced is a price, not the associated plan. It could be that the O2 plan has a gazillion more inclusive everything than the £21 EE plan...or perhaps not...
Not compatible with iPhone 5 - That isn't O2's fault (other than the fact that they didn't purchase any of the 4G frequencies that the iPhone 5 can pick up). iPhone 5 can't receive all 4G frequencies, and unfortunately for O2 the spectrum band that they won is one of those it doesn't...
My assumption is that they'll try to compete by selling 4G to us country folk who can't receive EE's double-4G speed (or even GPRS) wizardry. O2 are the only network to have won 4G spectrum on the condition that they reach 98% of the population by 2017...